There are so many things written on the area of Error Correction. It is Scott Thornbury (2006, 56), among others, who writes that “[t]he amount and type of correction favoured by teachers is closely related to the teacher’s attitude to error, which is in turn influenced by the teacher’s theory of language learning.”

Indeed, there are teachers who are in favour of hot correction (correcting the learner the minute they make an error) and others who prefer cold correction (waiting for the student to finish the task and then provide the correction.

I was thinking the other day how hard it must be for a student to spend 45, 50, 60, or in some cases 90 minutes in a classroom. Not only do we expect them to behave in the best possible way, we also expect them to be focused and responsive. While thinking all these, I asked myself “Isn’t that too much? Don’t we forget something?” And, basically, we do!

We keep on reading and writing about the effects of technology on our learners’ lives, thinking, expectations etc. but it seems that we forget to think the effects it has on them as human beings. What is the key word we all associate with technology and the web? Speed! Everything happens fast and the younger one is, the less able s/he is to stay focused for long.

#ELTchat is a group of ELT professionals discussing topics of interest every Wednesday at 12pm or 9pm on rotation. Every Saturday, one of the moderators puts up a blog post on the #ELTchat Blog asking teachers who follow #ELTchat to propose some topics for the next chats. #ELTchat followers can go to that post and suggest topics in the comments under the blog post. On Sunday evening, the moderators review the topics and create an online poll. #ELTchat followers are then invited to vote on the topics until Wednesday morning (eltchat.org)

This week’s topic was “How can newly-qualified teachers best use what they learn in the first few years of their career to develop into successful Teachers?” Click here for the transcript of the discussion. Continue reading →

One of my CELTA tutors once had said that courses like the CELTA and Delta ones are like the army: you can talk about them to death but only those who have followed one of these courses will be able to understand you.

So, the intensive course is over, submission of all assignments for all modules is over, and results have been announced and are satisfying. Two months after the completion of the course (and after receiving various requests from Facebook friends) I am writing some final thoughts about the modular Delta course. Continue reading →

I have just launched a new online course (click here for more information) and I would like to share with you the reasons I decided to go online.

First, let me thank my Delta tutor, Marisa Constantinides, and my new online friend and soon-to-be mentor for online teaching, Jack Askew, for ‘opening up’ this completely new path in my career. Deciding to go online is not easy; had it not been for the support of these two people, I would have never done it. Continue reading →

Some months ago, a very dear tutor of mine had said “You do not understand how or when this course is over; once you start attending, time flies away and as if it were magic, you survive.” This is the Delta course, for me: a course of survival.

#ELTchat is a group of ELT professionals discussing topics of interest every Wednesday at 12pm or 9pm on rotation. Every Saturday, one of the moderators puts up a blog post on the #ELTchat Blog asking teachers who follow #ELTchat to propose some topics for the next charts. #ELTchat followers can go to that post and suggest topics in the comments under the blog post. On Sunday evening, the moderators review the topics and create an online poll. #ELTchat followers are then invited to vote on the topics until Wednesday morning (eltchat.org)

This week’s topic, was “How to activate passive vocabulary with advanced students.” Click here for the transcript of the discussion. Continue reading →

#ELTchat is a group of ELT professionals discussing topics of interest every Wednesday at 12pm or 9pm on rotation. Every Saturday, one of the moderators puts up a blog post on the #ELTchat Blog asking teachers who follow #ELTchat to propose some topics for the next charts. #ELTchat followers can go to that post and suggest topics in the comments under the blog post. On Sunday evening, the moderators review the topics and create an online poll. #ELTchat followers are then invited to vote on the topics until Wednesday morning (eltchat.org)

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About Me

Angelos Bollas (MA in ELT) completed his CELTA and Delta at CELT Athens in 2014. As of July 2016, he is an approved CELTA Tutor. Other than teaching and training, he enjoys being a member of IATEFL Conference Committee, participates in and co-moderates #ELTchat weekly discussions on Twitter, and presents in various conferences around the world. He is a PhD candidate at Leeds Beckett University researching the effects of heteronormativity on LGBTQ students' motivation.